Tips for recruiting during the holiday season

As a hiring manager, your job is already stressful enough during the holiday season. Meeting deadlines and ensuring all of your employees stay on track before December ends can be overwhelming as it is. Things can get even more hectic when you throw recruiting into the mix.

But your hiring process shouldn’t fall by the wayside just because it’s taking place between December and January. Here are a few tips for recruiting during the holiday season:

1. Ask current staff for referrals
Instead of digging through piles of resumes you collected from a third party recruiting site, talk to the employees you already have and see if they have any recommendations for potential employees. Seeking insight from the staff members you already trust can increase the odds that you’ll find people who are willing to work hard. To increase the amount of potential candidates brought to your attention, incentivize referrals to your current employees. Mighty Recruiter recommended offering a small bonus, gift card or an extra vacation day to those who set you up with the right candidates.

Ask your staff members for referrals during the holiday season to ease the hiring process.

2. Make use of social media
If you don’t use a third party recruiting site to advertise the open position, look to social media instead. It’s a powerful tool that will attract a wide variety of candidates, and it can come in handy when you already have your hands full around the holidays.

“We have a very aggressive social media hiring strategy in our organization,” Paul Tanguay, Global Director of Recruitment Strategies for UPS told Mighty Recruiter. “Today’s applicants are very connected to social media and having visibility in that area brings a lot of credibility to your organization.”

3. Take it easy!
Just because it’s a hectic time of year, doesn’t mean you should rush through the hiring process. Whatever you do, don’t hire potential candidates on a whim. Take your time to get to know them and their past experiences before you think about offering them the position. This will save you time, money and effort in the long run if the person you hired doesn’t end up working out.

Don’t let the idea of hiring new staff members during the holiday season get your bogged down. Just use these tips and tricks as tools and recruiting can be simple and seamless.